ReadersMagnet Review presents a book review of Virginia Metzler’s Our God Still Speaks.”

For many devout Christians, the world is becoming an increasingly unbelieving place. Outside the churches, they encounter many who no longer accept that there is a God who reaches out, speaks to them, and touches their lives.

To the non-believer, there is simply no evidence for the existence of God. Some go as far as to say that it is a product of mental illness. The Old Testament stories of God speaking to numerous prophets are treated as Bronze Age myths.

However, Virginia Metzler is one of many Christians who still believe otherwise. And for proof, she presents it all in her book Our God Still Speaks. This surprisingly enriching collection of personal stories just won ReadersMagnet’s RMazing Bonanza Level 2.

Our God Still Speaks is a compilation of different events of Metzler’s life as a missionary to Liberia, West Africa. Her husband, John Thomas Barnett, Jr., was a pilot serving their missions. The official name of their mission was Tournata, by R.G. LeTourneau. Its primary goal was to educate African men on reading, writing, and simple math, followed by more practical skills training so those men could raise their families.

The couple was barely out of high school when they decided to get married and pursue the calling to help educate Liberia’s poor. Yet despite their inexperience, Metzler hopes that the story she shares will move people into realizing that God does still speak to people today.

God’s Voice in The Tournata Mission (and Beyond)

The book describes Metzler’s experience at the Tournata mission in great detail. Its pages are not merely filled with her spiritual reflections and routines of her religious values. With every word, she paints a picture of an African nation in the late 50s.

The Tournata mission was located in Baffu Bay. At the time, Liberia’s capital city of Monrovia was still in development and had very few airstrips.

This means that life at the missions was a relatively simple one. For Metzler, she was content enough to have lived in a prefab house with access to a lot of basic necessities. In fact, she goes as far as to say the presence of these amenities was God’s way of showing her there were always commonalities among cultures, even if they were continents apart.

Sadly, that did not mean life was rosy. Somewhere during their stay, her husband died in a tragic plane crash. His loss was devastating not only for Metzler but also for their growing family, their community, and the mission.

It more or less also meant the end of her family’s life in Africa (at least for the time being). The latter half of the book talks about the ways she felt God spoke to her in her time of grief, healing, and before once again finding love. Inserted at various points are Bible verses that echoed the lessons she had learned from her experiences.

A Missionary Memoir as Well as an Inspirational Christian Book

Overall, at least, some readers might be surprised to find that this book isn’t just another collection of Christian miracle accounts and claims of hearing voices or visions.

Our God Still Speaks is actually a very rich, dynamic presentation of life as a global missionary, from a West African country during the Cold War era to the Philippines under Martial Law. For those who share in her faith, the book describes the heartfelt journey of a family striving to heed God’s voice. For those a little more skeptical, it’s certainly a detailed perspective of different nations and their life at certain points in history.